WHITE PLAINS — A Connecticut man has filed a civil rights lawsuit against two Liberty police officers who charged him with aggravated harassment after he mailed in a speeding ticket payment form with the word "Liberty" crossed out and changed to "Tyranny" and scrawled a crude commentary on the town to express his frustration with the process.

Heather Yakin

WHITE PLAINS — A Connecticut man has filed a civil rights lawsuit against two Liberty police officers who charged him with aggravated harassment after he mailed in a speeding ticket payment form with the word "Liberty" crossed out and changed to "Tyranny" and scrawled a crude commentary on the town to express his frustration with the process.

Willian Barboza, 22, is being represented in the suit by the New York State Civil Liberties Union and the Chester law firm of Bergstein & Ullrich.

Barboza is suing on claims of false arrest and malicious prosecution for engaging in protected speech. He's asking for damages for pain and suffering. He is asking for a judicial declaration that the subsection of New York's aggravated harassment law under which he was charged, which deals with "annoying" or "alarming" speech, is unconstitutional.

Barboza was ticketed for speeding in May 2012 on Route 17 in Liberty. He pleaded guilty by mail; in August 2012, he made his payment, but expressed his annoyance by scratching out the town's name and replacing it with "Tyranny." He also added an obscenity-laced insult on the payment form accompanying an August 2012 ticket. The court rejected his payment and ordered him to appear in person. He did so on Oct. 18, at which point he was lectured about his language by Town Justice Brian Rourke in open court. Then, police Officers Steven D'Agata and Melvin Gorr arrested him, charging him with aggravated harassment, a misdemeanor. He was taken to the Town of Fallsburg for arraignment, and freed a few hours later after posting $200 bail.

After several more court appearances, Fallsburg Justice Ivan Kalter dismissed the aggravated harassment case against Barboza on free speech grounds.

According to Barboza's lawsuit, Kalter wrote that the commentary the man wrote on the payment form was clearly not a threat or "fighting words"; Barboza's comments, Kalter found, "under the circumstances here, offensive as it is, is protected."